About

What is it?
Our revolutionary glasses will fight glare by dimming just the bright parts of the field of view. If you're driving into the sun, they dim the sun, without dimming everything else that you need to see. Because only the sun is darkened, it can be made a lot darker than any other technology (like polarizers or photogray glasses) because those other technologies darken the entire lens. We do it by putting a liquid crystal display in front of each eye and darkening just the spot between your pupil and the glare source. It acts like holding up your hand to block the sun, but with no effort on your part. If the sun moves, then the spot moves, and if the sun goes away, then the spot goes away. We have working prototypes that react faster than you can blink, and can run for a hundred hours on watch batteries. See a video demonstration here.

As a result, you can feel completely relaxed, even when facing towards the sun or its reflections. The problem with the sun is that it’s ten thousand times brighter than everything else you’re looking at, and your eyes can’t handle the difference. You squint, pull down the shade, put your hand, or do anything to get rid of the sun. With our glasses, you can relax, because the sun is dimmed down to an acceptable level. You can still see it, as well as any silhouettes that come in front, and because the glare is blocked, you can see a lot more of what’s near the sun. You’ll want it when you’re driving, when you’re playing sports, or anytime you’re outside in the sun.

What do we need?
We need some money, sure, because it costs plenty to launch a new consumer product, especially one with as many novel features as this one. We’re figuring out how to make the LCDs on curved plastic substrates, so they can be built into cool, wraparound style shades. We’re making the electronics so tiny they’ll fit into sporty sunglasses models. We’re building in a wireless recharging capability that’s compatible with the new Qi wireless power standard. We need to squeeze everything into strong, lightweight sunglasses frames that are comfortable and fun to wear. And, of course, we’ll need to make them by the thousands.

Even more, though, we would like to identify a pool of potential early users that could help us decide what trade-offs to make in designing the glasses, and potentially add their ideas to our product (like Microsoft's "Windows 7 was my idea" campaign, but for real). A strong showing on Kickstarter would also convince more traditional funding mechanisms like venture capitalists of the size of the market for our product.

Our vision
Our first product will be a pair of non-prescription sunglasses that act like normal sunglasses in normal light, and darken glare sources by at least a factor of 20 compared to the rest of the field of view. They will launch with a retail price of about $500, which is in line with some high-end sunglasses already, but like most electronic goods, the price will drop as the volumes increase. Then we'll add prescribability, ever-shrinking electronics, and glare shielding with clear lenses for driving at night. Join our revolution today!